THOUSANDS of children are continuing to be arrested by police forces, despite figures having fallen by a third in the past three years.

Research by campaign group the Howard League for Penal Reform showed North Yorkshire Police arrested 6,452 children aged 17 and under last year – an average of 124 arrests a week.

It was the only police force in England and Wales to record an increase in child arrests between 2008 and 2011, and one of only four to see an increase in the last 12 months for which figures were available.

Cleveland (down 30 per cent), Durham (down 38 per cent) and Northumbria all experienced falls in their arrest figures over the three year period.

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League, said: “It is regrettable that the number of children arrested by North Yorkshire Police is rising, when we have seen a downward trend across the rest of England and Wales.

“Children who get into trouble are more often than not just being challenging teenagers and how we respond to this nuisance behaviour could make a difference for the rest of their lives.

"An arrest can blight a life and lead to a criminal record for just being naughty. The positive change in policing children will release resources to deal with real crimes.

“Only a handful of children are involved in more serious incidents and they usually suffer from neglect, abuse or mental health issues.”

The charity said there were 209,000 arrests of children aged 17 and under last year in England and Wales, which included 2,117 arrests of ten and 11-year-olds.

This represented a fall of a third since 2008 when more 315,000 arrests were recorded.

It has been campaigning to reduce the amount of child arrests and has worked with a number of police forces to review their arrest procedures and policies.

The Howard League is holding a Policing and Children Conference, which is being held in Birmingham on Thursday (6).

Speakers will include Jacqui Cheer, the temporary Chief Constable of Cleveland police and Durham University academic Professor Jo Phoenix, as well as the likes of Paul McKeever, chairman of the Police Federation and Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions.

TCC Cheer said: "It is important to remember that these numbers relate to arrests of young people up to and including 17 year olds as the word children tends to imply they are from a younger age group.

“Unfortunately young people do commit crime and as we have seen in Cleveland in the last year some young people commit very serious crime such as attempted murder or rape.

“I would like to assure people that police officers do not look to arrest people unless they think it is necessary and they have the power to do so."